The Letters on the Bone
by Wildflower69
Summary: My first attempt at a story! A Bones whodunit! When a skeleton with a mysterious message on it appears at a high school, Booth and Bones are called in to investigate. The message leads them into a deadly game, with the team questioning everything.
1. Chapter 1

**Ok, so this is my first attempt to write a story...ever! And I'm going to try to tackle a whodunit! So, fingers crossed and maybe I can write a good story, but if it totally sucks, whatever, it entertained me lol. Ok, so if you could review that would be great. Be nice tho, even if it does suck!!! Plzkthxbai!** _  
~~Oh, and btw, this takes place in season 2 with Zack and no Hodgins/Angela drama. (not that I don't love them, but I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible!)_

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What's the context of the find?" Brennan asked as she walked towards the Bethesda High School football field.

"Football team comes out for practice before school, and they find a skeleton on the 50-yard line. With an away game on Friday and the school being empty on the weekend, nobody noticed the remains. " Booth explained. "It's like nothing I've ever seen before."

"What do you mean?" Brennan questioned.

"See for yourself" Booth said as he gestured towards the direction of the victim.

When she got closer to the body, she saw what he meant. There was no flesh on the body at all. A perfect skeleton, laid out anatomically, like she lays them out on the tables back at the Jeffersonian. She knelt down next to the bones. "Pubic bone suggests male, late 30s early 40s. The flesh has been completely stripped from the bone, but it doesn't look like it was the work of scavengers." Before she could make anymore observations, Booth gestured towards the right femur. "What do you make of this?" he asked.

She sighed, slightly annoyed. She hated it when Booth interrupted her process, and she shot him a look that conveyed that thought. Her attitude quickly changed, however, when she saw the femur. Burned into the bone, stretching from the one end to the other, were letters. "What…?" She looked closer. "L-H-M-E-E-E-E-G-T-G-S-I-T-A-B-N" she read.

"What is that?" Booth asked her. "Don't tell me our killer tried to send a message and can't spell" he said with a little chuckle. Brennan rolled her eyes and continued her examination.

"I think it's an anagram…or maybe a code. I'm sure Zack will know." She paused, looking at the bones. "I see no obvious cause of death." Brennan said with a sigh as she stood up. "Let's send the whole kick-and-cadoodle back to the lab." She smiled at Booth, obviously proud of herself for using a saying that Booth would use.

Booth sighed, but still smiled. "It's kip-and-caboodle Bones, kip-and-caboodle." For all her brains, sometimes Bones was still a little clueless. Even though he was used to her lack of social knowledge, he still got a chuckle from it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to the people who have read and reviewed! Sorry the chapters are so short, but the good news is that short chapters come more often! =) Hope you enjoy. I don't think I really captured Zack, Hodgins and, Angela that well, but oh well, practice makes perfect!**

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The bones were laid out anatomically?" Zack asked he and Dr. Brennan began their exam. Angela and Hodgins were on the other side of the table, looking on curiously.

"Yes," she answered him, "and this"-she gestured towards the femur-"is what is even more puzzling."

Zack leaned in to get a better look at the letters on the bones. "Exactly 16 letters, burned into the bone…with a wood-burning tool, maybe? It looks like an anagram, maybe a code…Why would someone burn a code on a bone?"

At the word code, Hodgins' head popped up. "Code? I'll take a look at that, maybe I can break it." Bones nodded. "Go for it" she said, "I can get any particulates to you after my examination." Hodgins smiled, giddy to have something besides bugs and slime to work on, and copied the letters onto the paper on his clipboard and went to his area to work in peace.

"Ok, so, I am ready to put a face on our victim" Angela said.

"I haven't put the tissue markers on yet. I still need to examine it more closely. You can have it when I'm done." Bones told her.

"Figured out what our mysterious letters mean yet?" Bones heard a voice from across the lab. She turned to see Booth bounding up the steps, stopping just long enough to swipe his card key before stepping onto the forensics platform.

"It's either a code, or an anagram, or both. We need to break it to find out. Hodgins is working on it now." Zack told him, and both he and Bones noticed the confused look on Booth's face.

"That could take forever, right? Can't you just run it through some computer thingy to figure it out?" Booth asked.

"Impossible" Zack said. "I could use a program to rearrange the letters but it could extend into infinity."

Suddenly, Hodgins walked up excitedly. "It's a Caesar's cipher box." he said with a very proud smile.

"What's a Caesar's box thing?" Booth said with a confused look on his face, a look that had become a common occurrence in the lab.

"Caesar was one of the first code writers in history" Hodgins explained with a little more than a hint of excitement in his voice. "When his messengers kept getting ambushed and his messages stolen, he devised a relatively simple way to encrypt his messages so the messages looked like gibberish." He paused to make sure everyone was keeping up. Booth still looked confused, but Hodgins knew he would catch up in a minute. "Each message consisted of enough letters to make a perfect square- 9, 16, 25, 100- depending on how much he needed to say. He would then alert whoever was on the receiving end of the message to arrange the text into a square. They would then read it from top to bottom, and the message would become clear." He stopped, and waited for any questions.

"Well thanks for the history lesson Hodgins" Booth said, still looking a bit confused, and now a little annoyed, "but did you figure it out?"

"Yeah," Hodgins said, handing Booth the clipboard. Booth looked at it, but couldn't quite make out the chicken scratch that was Hodgins handwriting. "It only says 4 words." Hodgins said. Everyone looked at him expectantly.

"'Let the games begin'."


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Oh good grief I suck at this lol. I realized that I forgot to include Cam (mostly b/c I don't really like her) but I figured that I needed to include her.**

"Let the games begin? Are you sure?" Booth asked looking at Hodgins.

Hodgins nodded. "Yeah, I double checked."

"So we have another sicko playing games with us?" Booth said, thinking back to Howard Epps. Now not only was he worried about everyone's safety, he was thoroughly ticked off that someone was screwing with them.

Bones stood next to them, lost in thought. "The most important thing to do right now is to find out who this man is and what killed him" she said, trying to keep Booth on track. "Zack, take the skull and put the tissues markers on it for Angela, see if we can't get a face." Zack nodded, and went to his station with the skull. "Now, Hodgins," Bones said looking at him "Take the soil samples collected from around the body and see if there's anything special about them."

Hodgins nodded and picked up the evidence bag sitting on a nearby desk. "I'll get right on it" he said, and went to his station.

"Very good," Bones said. "I'll look over the body again, see if I can find cause of death."

"Ok, good, everybody has something to do" Booth said. "As for you, Bones, you don't leave my sight."

Bones looked annoyed. "I don't need you to protect me Booth."

"Just because you say it in that definitive tone doesn't mean that it means anything to me" Booth said with a smile.

Bones rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said "which means you can sit here and keep yourself entertained while I examine the bones." She smiled when she said it, knowing that Booth wouldn't be able to sit still very long.

"Fine, I'll sit here" Booth said with a smug grin, sitting in a chair and propping his feet on a desk.

"Have it your way" Bones grumbled, going back to the body. She managed to get only about five minutes of quiet time to begin her examination before Booth's phone rang.

Booth snapped open the phone. "Booth here" he said. He sat quietly for a second, listening to whoever was one the other end of the conversation. "Ok, thanks" Booth said, hanging up the phone. "Cut the examination short Bones, we got another body.

Woodmont Park in Bethesda, MD was a quaint little park right outside downtown. As Booth and Bones drove into the parking lot, Bones couldn't help but think that a murder was out of place here. Crime scene tape marked off one section of the park. The local police were interviewing woman with her kids. The woman looked a little shook up, but managed to put on a strong act for the kids. The kids, however, looked like they were in shock. _Probably the unlucky ones who found the body_ Bones thought.

Booth and Bones got out of the car and walked over to one of the local officers waiting for them. "The woman over there" the officer said, gesturing towards the woman and her kids, "found the body when she brought her kids here to play. The body has some kind of weird pattern burned into it."

"Burned?" Booth asked. "Like, branded or something?"

"Yeah, something like that" the officer said as they reached the body.

The body was on its back, naked except for a sheet covering the lower half of the body. There was a burn on the body, stretching from the chest to the abdomen.

"This is a body," Bones said, looking at Booth, "A body with flesh."

"Yeah, well, there is that weird burn thing that may have something to do with our code body from yesterday." Booth said in a defensive way.

Bones sighed and knelt next to the body. "Fine. Male, mid-40s. The burn stretches from the top of the sternum to the pubic bone." She looked at the burn. "This burn doesn't consist of any letters or numbers. It looks like a barcode." She looked up at Booth as she said it.

"A barcode? Like the thing that gets swiped at a store when you buy something?" Booth asked, looking confused.

"Yeah" Bones said. "If it's some type of code, then Hodgins may know what it means." She stood up and looked at Booth. "You know what this means, right?"

"Yeah, it means we'll have to call Cam back early from her vacation" Booth said. Bones couldn't help but noticed that he almost looked a little scared when he said it.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I know it's been forever, but I've been really busy. Hope you enjoy, please review. Thanks!!!**

Dr. Saroyan walked into the Medico-Legal lab with an air of confidence, mixed in with a small amount of ticked off for her vacation ending a week too early. _Actually, with all the death I have to deal with here, more like a year too early _she thought. She walked up onto the forensic platform and greeted everybody. "Ok, let's get down to business. What's been going on in the case so far?"

Booth took this as his cue and stepped forward. "Our first body was found a couple of days ago on a high school football field. It was a complete skeleton, no signs of decomp, and burned into a bone was a code"

"The code was a cipher box" Hodgins jumped in. Booth looked a little annoyed, but he let him continue. "After deciphering it, the code read 'Let the games begin'."

"That was as far as we've gotten in that investigation when a new body showed up. It is still…meaty. A fresh kill, from the looks of it. It also had a code burned into it." Booth said

"We still haven't figured that one out yet, but the body is all clear for you to examine." Hodgins said

"And that's where you come in" Booth said with a smile, trying to work his Seeley charm on Cam. Unfortunately, Cam had seen it done one too many times, and she wasn't having it.

"Fine," she said "I'll be in the autopsy room. Call me if you need me." With that, she grabbed her bag and went to her office.

"She doesn't look very happy to be back" Bones said as she watched Cam walk away.

"Well, of course not. We ruined her vacation." Booth said, a little defensive "Not all people are like you, Bones. Some can't handle this death day in and day out. Some need a break, some need to get out and be in the sun and the fresh air, and away from rotting corpses."

Bones nodded, thinking, and turned her attention to Zack, Hodgins and Angela. "Have we identified our first victim yet?

"Yeah," Angela said, walking up with a small file in her hand. "His name is Patrick Gables. He worked as a clerk in a convenient store about twenty miles from the high school. "

"Thanks, I'll take this," Booth said taking the file from Angela. "I'll make some calls, see if I can find the family. You two" -he gestured towards Bones and Zack- "see what you can find about him with your, you know, bones stuff." With that, he walked out of the room.

"Anything about cause of death?" Bones asked, walking with Zack to the exam table.

"There are cuts on the anterior side of the xiphoid process of the sternum. There are matching cuts on the T-5 vertebrae. They look like they were made with a thick blade, non-serrated. I will look into matching the cuts with possible weapons," Zack told her.

"Very good, let me know when you find a match," Bones said, walking away. She walked up to Hodgins station. "Any news about the particulates from around the first body?"

"Unfortunately, there isn't much good news here. There were no particulates around the body that were foreign to the area that you found him in. And the water that was used to boil the flesh off the bones had no distinguishing characteristics," Hodgins said, looking a little let-down. He was so accustomed to the particulates he found making a difference in the case.

Bones nodded and said, "Well, hopefully, there will be some interesting particulates with the second body. What about the barcode on this body?"

"It's a code called Code 39. It's an actual barcode like the ones used in shipping. Unfortunately, there is no barcode that can read burnt flesh, so I have to break this by hand, and it's a painstaking process."

"Ok, well, let me know what you find. Don't forget to keep Cam up to date."

Booth walked back up onto the forensic platform. "He has no next of kin, so there is no family to talk to, which is a small blessing itself. Come on Bones, let's go question his coworkers."

"Booth, I'm needed here. You can't drag me off whenever you want to. Besides, you're better with the people stuff than I am," Bones protested.

"No you're not, these guys are handling it, and Cam is cutting open our second vic, so let's go," Booth said, again trying to use his Seeley charm. This time it worked.

"Ok," Bones said, "Let me get my coat."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Booth and Bones pulled into the parking lot of the Quik-E Mart off of Highway 27. "Well," Booth said, getting out of the car, "this is where the vic worked."

"It's very secluded. It would be easy for someone to take him if he was here by himself at night." Bones said.

Booth nodded and opened the door for Bones. The bell of the door gave a simple 'ding' as they walked in. A heavy middle aged man came out of the back room and stood behind the counter. "Can I help you?" he said with a welcoming smile.

"Yeah," Booth said, flashing his badge. "I'm Special Agent Booth and this is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan. We need to ask you a couple of questions, Mr…."

"Harper. Bill Harper. I take it this is about Patrick?" he said.

"What makes you think this is about Patrick?" Bones asked.

"It's not like Patrick to miss work. He loved his job. He's one of those social types, ya know? He loved to talk to anyone who came in." Harper said.

"When was the last time you saw him?" Booth asked.

"About a week ago. He left around 11 that night while I was closing. He was supposed to open the next day around 6am, and I was going to come in around 8. When I got here, the store was still locked up, and I haven't seen him since."

Suddenly, Brennan's phone rang. She excused herself and went outside to answer it.

"Did he have any enemies? Any disagreements between him and any of the customers?"

"No, everyone loved him. Like I said, a social type. Loved to talk to people, and people loved to talk to him."

"Thanks," Booth said, handing him his card, "If you can think of anything else, let me know."

"Will do."

With that, Booth walked out to meet Bones.

"Yeah, ok. We'll be there in about half an hour. Good work." Bones said and hung up the phone. She looked at Booth. "Hodgins figured out the code. He says we need to get there as soon as we can."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Booth and Bones walked into the autopsy room. Cam was standing on one side of the autopsy table, with Angela, Zack, and Hodgins standing on the other side. The second victim was covered from the waist down in a sheet. The body was still intact. Cam must have waited to start her autopsy.

"So, what's the news?" Booth said as he and Bones walked up to the table.

"I figured out the code," Hodgins said excitedly. "It says, 'Let the dead speak'"

"But the dead don't speak," Bones said. "Because they're dead."

"It's a riddle, Dr. Brennan," Cam said. "It means that the clue we need is probably in the mouth of throat."

"Oh, well then, what are we waiting for?" Bones asked, looking at Cam.

Cam nodded and bent over the body. She opened the mouth and looked into. She squinted, but she didn't see anything. "There's nothing in here," she said. "Are you sure that's what it said?" she asked, looking at Hodgins.

"I'm positive." Hodgins said.

"Wait, I have an idea," Bones said. "The mouth is not the only part of the body that one uses to speak. The act of speaking involves the vocal chords, trachea, and lungs. So what we're looking for can be in any one of those places."

"Good idea," Cam said. She adjusted the light above her to point towards the throat. She made an incision on the side of the throat. She filleted open the throat so she could see the trachea.

Angela looked sick. "Ok, this is my cue. Call me if you need me." She walked out of the room.

As soon as she could see the trachea, she could see what they were looking for. There was a bulge in the trachea that was about 3 inches long. "Bingo baby," she said. She cut the trachea opened and saw what the bulge was. It was a key. She grabbed it with a pair of hemostats and held it up in the light.

"That's it?" Booth asked.

"Yeah, but it looks like there's something etched into the side of it." Cam rinsed the key to clean it off. She walked over to the magnifier, with Bones, Booth, Hodgins, and Zack in tow. She placed it under the magnifier.

"It looks like it says Morris." Hodgins said. "Do you think that's our second victim's name?"

Booth shook his head. "No, it's probably the name of the building that that key belongs to." He stood with his hand up to his chin, thinking. "Wait, I recognize that name. The Morris building is an old abandoned office building on the outskirts of downtown."

"Sounds like you and Brennan should go check it out." Cam said.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Booth and Brennan pulled up next to the old building.

"How are we going to get into the building? Angela said that the key goes to an office, not the front door." Bones said.

"If the killer managed to get in, then we can too." Booth said as he walked around to the back of the building. One of the doors was propped open. Booth pulled out his weapon. He looked at Bones. "Listen, stay back, and be careful," he said.

Bones nodded as they walked into the building. "We're looking for room 105," Bones said. They walked down a hallway, with Booth still holding his gun. They reached room 105. Brennan put the key in the lock, turned it, and the door opened with a creaking sound.

Bones and Booth walked in, and for a while both of them were quiet. The walls were covered with pictures of Bones. There were of pictures of her walking in and out of her apartment, pictures of Bones and Booth eating at the diner, and other pictures of Bones going about her day to day business. All of them looked like they were taken from a distance.

"Oh God," Booth said. "I hate the serial killer's wall-of-creepy."

Bones walked across the room. "Booth, look at this." The opposite wall was covered with the pages from Bones' book. There was a message painted on top of the pages. It said 'Welcome Dr. Brennan'.

"Please tell me that that is written in paint," Booth said, looking more worried by the minute.

"No Booth," Bones said. "I think it's written in blood."


End file.
